Boris Johnson's deputy chief of staff has warned advisors to prepare for an election next year, it has been reported.
According to remarks reported in the Times, top aide David Canzini said "the clock is ticking" - and while May 2024 is still the most likely date for an election, it could come as early as next autumn.
He's said to have made the comments during a No10 briefing last Friday.
Mr Canzini reportedly said the PM was "not out of the woods" on Partygate - despite Jacob Rees-Mogg yesterday branding the scandal "fluff".
Speaking at Tory Spring Conference in Blackpool, Mr Rees-Mogg said ukraine -crisis>Ukraine crisis has provided an opportunity for the Tories to ‘get away’ from Partygate.
He described the scandal as “fundamentally trivial” and “fluff” - saying the “seriousness” of Vladimir Putin ’s invasion made it look like “nonsense.”
The party's Spring Conference - the first such event held by the party since the days of David Cameron - has been seen as an attempt by Boris Johnson to kick his team into election mode, and cement his position as leader into the next election.
In his speech, party chairman Oliver Dowden declared that the Tories, as of the May local elections, would be gearing up for a General Election poll within two years, issuing a call for candidates from "all walks of life".
He told reporters later on Friday that there was "plenty of time" to make fiscal decisions before voters elect the next government.
The former culture secretary appeared to suggest it was no accident that the party had returned to Blackpool - previously a mainstay on the party conference circuit - for the first time since 2007, saying his outfit needed to be the "party of mill towns and mining towns as well as the metropolis".
Mr Johnson is set to give a speech from the main stage of the conference today.
